Rhoda Miel
Pop Goes Plastics
July 16, 2015 Updated 7/16/2015
‘Marching against resistance’ sounds pretty rock ‘n’ roll, even if ‘bioplastic luggage tag’ doesn’t
Pearl Jam worked with SEA-LECT Plastics & Green Dot Holdings, LLC. to produce custom luggage tags for its fan club.
Pearl Jam may have been a pioneer of “grunge rock,” but that doesn’t mean they want to leave behind a messy planet.
So the Seattle-based band has teamed with a Kansas resin maker and a Washington state molder to sell luggage tags for members of its Ten Club fan club made from bio-based, compostable plastics.
Yeah. I know. Luggage tags don’t exactly scream “rock ‘n’ roll,” but as Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard put it in a news release, they do represent an iconoclastic take on your standard tour souvenir.
“The need for better, compostable plastic goods is just so evident, and it’s amazing that the materials already exist. We’re just marching against resistance to implementation at this point.”
Pearl Jam is working with Green Dot Holdings LLC of Cottonwood Falls, Kan., the makers of the Terratek line of bio-based and compostable plastics, which already are used for iPhone cases and other products.
Pearl Jam luggage tags designed, tooled and molded by SEA-LECT Plastics Corp.
Green Dot, in turn, connected Pearl Jam with Sea-Lect Plastics Corp. of Everett, Wash., which worked with the band to design, tool and mold the luggage tags in the musicians’ own Seattle region.
“We’re here to help designers and manufacturers lighten the environmental impact of their product,” Green Dot CEO Mark Remmert said. “This project epitomizes everything that’s important to us. Making it locally is the icing on the cake.”
Green Dot points out that while the tags can “withstand the rigors of a worldwide tour,” they won’t begin to degrade until placed in a composting environment.